Unexplainable energy consumption increase

[Irvine_brown]

Hi Everyone,

I'm at my wit's end trying to figure out why my electricity bill has more than tripled in the last month. 

We usually pay about $70 a month, but last month's bill was $240!!!!! We have solar, not a huge system, but we usually export back to the grid each day. But even before we got solar our bills were never this much. There are just three of us in the home (myself, my husband, and our 10 month old daughter). 

Our AGL usage via the app shows everything travelling normally until the 13th of May at which stage our daily usage triples. We are energy conscious and turn all things off at the wall, don't use dishwashers and washing machines at the same time, and only use these during the day. We don't have aircon. We sometimes use an oil heater in the evening for half an hour when my daughter gets out of her bath. 

I have sent my AGL bills (and inverter info) to our solar installers who advised that we are producing sufficient solar, and when looking at the same time last year we are still producing the same amount of solar that we did then. The solar company advised that it is our consumption that has gone up and this is an accurate assessment when looking at the usage on the app. We have turned off our solar hot water system from the mains to eliminate that, but no difference. Same with the pool pump. We have also monitored our use of various appliances throughout the day over the last five days and we can't figure out what is causing this. There are peaks at odd times when nothing remarkable was happening. We have not purchased any new appliances. I am working from home but the energy hikes started before I started working from home. 

We have an electrician coming out on Monday to see if he can diagnose what's happening but I'm so annoyed at it that I thought I'd ask on here for anyone else's advice. I have spoken to the Resolution's Team at AGL three times now and they don't have any other advice for me other than what I'm doing (a process of elimination with the appliances, but it seems that it's bigger than just one thing). For instance there is a spike when we use our oven, but this is generally against a background of more energy usage overall. For instance we are using 5kw+ between 6pm and 10pm when our lifestyle patterns haven't changed at all (we watch some TV - with all the lights off). 8kw was what we were using for a whole day this time last year. 

If anyone has any ideas I'd be so grateful to hear them. 

Many thanks,

Laura

[SusanH]

Hi Laura

I have no ideas, sorry, but am experiencing something similar.  I recently got a catch up bill for $1000 on top of my normal bills.  The electrician came (cost $550!?!) and fixed an appliance but it us happening again.  I have had no luck whatsoever speaking with AGL, and no insights from this community (yet).   I can't help you sorry, but you're not alone.

All the best, Susan

[NeilC]

Laura,

Any update on your situation.

I reduced my consumption by 3kw a day by turning of our Reverse Cycle Air Conditioner.

We don't use it but in tracking down our usage I found that the AC was drawing power (125w) every hour.

Have not investigated it (we turned off the breaker over two years ago) and maybe will get to it one day.

Cheers Neil

[Irvine_brown · Accepted solution]

Thanks to both of you for your messages. 
Turns out when we got solar a year ago the sparkies who upgraded our switch board wired our neighbour’s air conditioner and hot water system onto our meter! We live in a duplex so share a switch board with our neighbours. We have new neighbours this winter who are using reverse cycle on the air con a lot, hence the increase in bill. Needless to say we have been appropriately reimbursed for the electricity we have paid over the last year and the money we’ve lost from not selling as much back to the grid. 

[David_AGL]

@Irvine_brown what a frustrating issue to identify and deal with. I'm so glad to hear you got it resolved and reimbursed. Thanks for dropping by again to actually let us know what the problem was - it's a good example of the types of things that could potentially cause an increase in usage once all the common reasons have been eliminated.